There is a decision coming out in the next two weeks to settle the telephone companies’ appeal to cabinet of the CRTC’s VoIP Decision from last year. We have a new Minister, a recent report from the Telecom Policy Review Panel and recent Decision by the CRTC to set in place the framework for liberalization of the local telecom service market in general – not just VoIP. Keep in mind that the TPR panel said that cabinet appeals should be removed from the Telecom Act. That channel lacks transparency and results in battles of special interest lobby groups.
What does it all add up to? If we believe that the Minister will be moving forward with the reforms recommended in the TPR report (specifically, look at Recommendation 9-5) then you should expect cabinet to refuse to overturn the CRTC decision and reject the appeal. At most, they may choose to give policy direction to the CRTC – another recommendation of the TPR report (Recommendation 9-1) – and send the decision back to the CRTC for further review under the terms of that policty guidance.
The phone companies have been actively lobbying for the TPR reforms to be adopted quickly – it has been a while since we have seen such active representation from this sector in the OpEd pages. While they may have wanted a ‘pre-existing appeals’ exception to apply, it is more likely that they may just have to live with losing the VoIP appeal as collateral damage as part of the movement towards a new umbrella framework.
If it works out that Cabinet turns down the appeal, I’d call it losing the VoIP battle, but a step toward winning the overall war creating a new regulatory framework.